Barrow, Alaska, March 7, 2014
This is our usual class picture for the Arctic Geophysics research class. Well, I guess we also have the more formal one, but that's so-o-o-o-o boring. This is way better, especially when it's about 15 below zero. This first week started scary warm on Saturday, March 1. It was (+)17F when we landed! Fortunately for our work things quickly cooled back down.

Barrow, Alaska, March 14, 2014
The temperature the second week was much more "normal" than the start of the previous week. In fact on Tuesday, March 10, it was worse than 40 below zero with the cold and wind chill. This meant that not only would the equipment fail in that brutal cold, but also the people. We spent the day processing data and scheming for our work for the rest of this second week.

This was taken when the temperature was "only"40 below with the whind chill. But it was a picture that just had to be done. We had just gotten the punchline research data, and we were feeling like we could handle it!

The second week was brutal. It was 60 below zero for this photo. It was so cold that equipment pieces shattered, frostbite was ever-present, and equipment and people were just failing all over. But we finally got the data that we needed to finish off this trip, and we were in the mood to celebrate.

Point Barrow, Alaska, July 15, 2011.

It's cold in Barrow, even in mid-July, especially at Point Barrow with the 20mph wind whipping off of the Arctic Ocean (seen in the background). The wind chill made it feel like 10°F below zero.

Physics major Jared Palmer is operating the GPR control console while I drag the 500MHz antenna setup behind me.

Barrow, Alaska in March 2010. Who needs Cancun??
71.3 degree north latitude, 20 degrees F below zero, ocean right behind us, wind chill non-existent--it just doesn't get any better than this! This was taken March 12, during the second week of our two-week research trip.

There was so much work to get done this year that we actually were there for 2 weeks. Five people stayed for the whole two weeks. Must have been gluttons for punishment. This picture was taken March 5, when the temperature was 20 below zero, but the wind chill put the temperature at worse than 30 below zero!